BII supports Meridiam’s African infrastructure fund

British investment organisation backs Meridiam's urban development vehicle focused on sub-Saharan Africa with €20m.

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Institution: British International Investment
Headquarters: London, UK
AUM: £7.7bn ($9.3 billion)
Allocation to alternatives: 70.13%

The UK government’s impact-focused development finance institution, British International Investment (formerly CDC Group), has committed €20 million to a sub-Saharan Africa urban infrastructure fund, according to a press release.

BII’s commitment continues its relationship with infra investor Meridiam, having backed the asset manager’s two other Africa-focused funds, MIAF I AND MIAF II.

The Urban Resilience Fund, launched by Meridiam in November 2020, supports the design and scaling of climate-focused infrastructure projects across sub-Saharan Africa, with a specific leaning towards public infrastructure in African cities. Targeting €500 million, the fund has a current size of €290 million, according to Infrastructure Investor data.

The fund will target infrastructure investments aligned with sustainability goals across a varied portfolio of assets within the transport, energy and social infrastructure sectors. The fund seeks to address three of the UN’s sustainable development goals, contributing to industry, innovation and infrastructure (SDG 9), sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11) and climate action (SDG 13).

Currently, BII has an appetite for investment in core, core-plus, value-add and debt strategies, with a specific focus on investment in Africa in the last few years. This is illustrated below by their recent private infrastructure commitments.

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